


Meteoric Rise

by orphan_account



Category: Puyo Puyo (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24118957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After touching a mysterious meteor, Ringo gains psychic powers and figures out what to do with them.
Kudos: 6





	1. You Got the Touch...

**Author's Note:**

> This work was started on January 1, 2020, and finished March 30, 2020. It was posted regularly on the English Puyo Puyo Community Discord Server. If you would like to join this server, go to https://discord.gg/V9P3vU  
> If you would like to see the authentic document from where it came from, visit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hPDPObzGaaiF26Pt7WbfyBgrJxYG8UWuj7AbtQN3ROM/edit  
> WARNING: I AM NOT PROUD OF THIS WORK. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

**Meteoric Rise**

**Written By OurGoodSir**

**Chapter 1: You Got the Touch…**

Ah, astronomy class. I know that some people aren’t as interested in the subject as I am. I don’t even need to look back to tell you there are at least five or six kids dead asleep on their desks. Somehow, though, this class soothes me. Just knowing just how insignificant we are in this world makes me feel better about all the mistakes I’ve made. The teacher has a genuine interest in the material, too, which helps a lot. Right now, though, he isn’t talking on a cosmic scale. 

“Now, students, today is a very special day! Every sixty-six years, Queen’s Comet passes by Earth, and it’s gonna be coming around again later this day! Look up at 2:30 PM to see this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

_ BRRRRIIIIIIIIINNNNG! _

“See you all later! Gaze responsibly!”

Half the class bolts out immediately, having already packed up five minutes ago. Most of the other half goes up to the teacher to have a nice, casual conversation with him. He always knows how to keep a conversation afloat. Those who were asleep show no signs of waking up anytime soon. Me, though? I’m one to just walk slowly with Mags.

Oh, right! I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I? Let me correct that.

Hey there. I’m Ringo Ando. If you’re a local Suzuranian, you probably know me as the girl heading the cashier at the local fruit shop. While I do do that to support my family’s store, there’s a lot more to me than that. I’ll have you know that I am a consistent straight-A student in the one quarter I’ve spent in Suzuran High so far. Also, if you’re wondering why I keep an apple on me, it’s a family heirloom from my grandmother. Don’t worry, it’s made of wax.

Now, back to where I was: Me and Maguro walking out of astronomy class, ready to take on the rest of the day. For Mags, it usually involves doing one of his fifty-six hobbies, but for me, it’s a little more complicated.

“Hey, Ringo! You gonna head to the comic store with me? The newest issue of Comet Cadet is out!”

“Thanks, but…” 

I pull out my schedule for the day. Normally, I don’t have anything to do until five, in which I man the evening shift for Ando’s and then study for my 3rd-period physics test tomorrow, but today I made a promise to Amitie. Unlike me, she’s usually one to struggle in class, despite her go-get-em demeanor. Friends help out friends in need, and she needs help more than I do, so… 

“Sorry, Maguro, but I made a promise to Amitie. You know how I am with those, don’t you?”

“Aw, you didn’t tell me about that!”

“Do I have to run everything by you?”

“No, but a heads up would’ve been nice. Don’t worry, though, I won’t spoil it for you!”

Maguro then runs off with the eagerness he always has with stuff like this. Personally, I was never a fan of Comet Cadet. Like, I get it, he doesn’t know how to use his psychic powers, but he doesn’t need to struggle with it for so long! It’s been 50 issues, for Christ’s sake! But that doesn’t matter. Right now, I’ve got a friendship to uphold.

“Ah, there you are, Ringo!”

As I walk through Nahe Woods, I hear Amitie’s chipper voice fly through the leaves in her usual cheerful way. I haven’t even spotted her yet, and somehow she’s already seen and greeted me. Never change, Amitie.

When I finally make it to our usual studying place, I see Amitie blowing on her hands to make them colder. In case you didn’t know, her specialty is ice magic, which kind of explains why she’s doing that, but I don’t think her slightly below room temperature hands can help that much with her slightly below freezing magic. Whatever, though, I’m not an expert on that subject.

“So, the usual procedure, Amitie?”  
“Yup! Bring it on!”

“Alright then. You see that thin little hole in that tree?” I point to the hole that we’ve been using for the past couple of dozen sessions. Actually, that’s a bit inaccurate: There’s plenty of holes in the tree. Look, Amitie tries, Okay?

“Which one?”

I knew she would say that.

“Just go for the usual spot. The hole that looks the biggest out of them all.”

“Ooooh, that one!”

It might seem a bit weird, but Amitie always asks that question when the training session begins. As far as I know, I’m the only one who teaches her outside of school, so there wouldn’t be anyone else to ask her to hit a different spot… if they even train here. Someone from Primp would probably use some underground target practice or something better than a tree in the woods. Honestly, I’m not even sure why she trains with me.

“Concentrate on that one spot,” I say because I don’t really know how else to help her with magic. “Pretend that the hole is your worst enemy.”

“I don’t have a ‘worst enemy.’”

“Then make one up! What do you hate the most?”

“Um… My inability to use magic?”

“Interesting, interesting.” She could try to aim for that, but it’s not really tangible if you get my drift. Thinking quickly, I blurt out “Now why do you hate that?”

“Because it causes people to look down on me and laugh at my dreams.”

Amitie replaces her cheerful smile with a more stern look, but she doesn’t seem quite ready to fire. 

“There we go! Now, pretend that the hole is one of your doubters. I can almost imagine what they’re saying right now: ‘Oh, Amitie, you silly goose! Why didn’t you pick some easier magic to learn? Everyone knows that this is too much for you to–’”

Before I can even finish she fires an icicle out of her palm and pierces the bark one more time.

“Booyah!” She cheers, jumping up and down with reckless abandon. I applaud and walk up towards her.

“And that’s one step closer to becoming the magician you want to be. That’s something I can’t really do.”

Suddenly, Amitie stops cheering. She turns towards me with a heartfelt in her eyes. Did I offend her?

“Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to brag about that in front of you,” she says.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Is this why you’re teaching me? You just really want magic powers? If that’s what you really want, you can enroll at Primp at any time.”

Wait, is that what she’s talking about? I almost instinctively laugh.

“No, that’s not why I’m here! I’m just one to help out a friend in need.”

Now, you might think that I said that to make her feel better. While that  _ is _ part of the reason, I do genuinely believe what I said right there. Sure, being able to launch ice out of my hands might be cool, but it’s not something I would spend hours and hours on end doing throughout the years. Besides, I’m not really an amazing, outgoing type. I think that just being a normal, mundane girl is fine by me. 

“Aww, that’s so sweet!” She says before giving me one of her traditional Amitie hugs. Sometimes, I feel like she makes up nonsequiturs in order to hug her friends more. If it is that, then I hope she keeps doing it, because I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it.

As I still bask in the moment, she continues with “So, ready to move on?”

I check my watch. 2:29.

“Actually, let’s take a break. I think there’s something you might like coming up.”

“Really? What is it?”

“Just look up at the sky. You’ll know what it is when you see it.”

And as if on cue, there it is in the sky: Queen’s Comet. Sure, it may just be a rock quickly going through the air, but it still truly is a sight to behold. Not many comets manage to get so close to the Earth so often, but the ones that do truly are special.

“Whaddya think?” I say to gauge Amitie’s interest.

“Wow, you were right! This really is–”

_ BOOM! _

The moment we look away from the meteor it instantaneously explodes in a massive flash of light. Had we not looked away to talk, it surely would’ve blinded us.

“What was that?”

Looking back up, the comet has now been split into five or six much smaller comets. It seems this time, the temperature was too much for it to handle. As the rocks head their own separate ways, I can hear the onlookers around us in panic as they run away and scream. Amitie grabs my shoulder as if to signify that she’s nervous, and to be honest, I kinda am as well. But this is too interesting for me to look away from. As we look on in this panicked interest, I notice that one of these meteorite chunks is actually getting larger and slowing down, which is something a meteor usually doesn’t do. Then it hits me.

_ CRASH! _

And then it misses me.

Right in front of us. That part of the comet now sits right in front of us. Had we chosen to stand somewhere else, or even if we used a different tree for practice, we might have been struck by a 1-ton galactic boulder. Its bright-red glow engulfs the surrounding area, making it hard to see anything else around her. Before I could even get a word in, Amitie bolts off in fear, and I really don’t blame her. If I were a normal person, I would’ve done the same.

But for some inexplicable reason, I don’t.

They say curiosity killed the cat. If that really was true, my funeral would’ve been years ago from trying to figure out how gravity works by myself. The sheer mystery of what had dropped itself in front of me was too much to flee. I need to know more about it. Is there a story I don’t know of? Was this a complicated message from the aliens? Sure, that may be incredibly far-fetched, but the comet wasn’t supposed to split like that. I know that actual scientists would probably figure this out far quicker than I am, but I don’t want to wait for them to get here. Maybe I can find out about this backstory. Maybe I can show off my true genius. Maybe… 

_ AUGH! _

I just touched the meteor! Why did I do that?! What made me decide that putting my fingers on this thousand-degree rock was a good idea?! It burns! I can feel my hand tingling like nothing I’ve ever felt before, and the sensation rushes over to my entire body. It’s like every single bone I have is now vibrating faster than I can even comprehend. I really shouldn’t have done that. I guess curiosity has finally caught up to playing Grim Reaper with the cat. I feel my legs growing limper and limper, my brain slowly processing less and less, until I tune out of reality… 

With the remaining energy I have, I struggle to open my eyelids. What I see through my blurry vision is no longer the grass and trees I passed out in, but instead what seems to be a hospital. Below me is a hospital bed, and though I can’t see it, I can definitely feel it from my feet to my neck. To my right is some face with green hair which I assume to be my mom, Nashi, and to my left is probably a doctor. As my eyesight becomes clearer and clearer, I notice that Nashi is moving her mouth, though no noise is actually coming out. It’s about now when I try to interpret her lip movements as words that I realize I have a headache; a splitting one at that. 

“Oh, thank goodness! Are you alright, sweetie?” my mind finally comprehends that that’s what Nashi’s saying. “I was worried sick about you!” It helps that my hearing has finally kicked in.

“Um, yeah,” I lie. I don’t even know why I say that. They could probably piece together what happened when they see me unconscious next to a meteor. Somehow, though, they believe that.

“Well, I’ve done all the checks for any abnormal disease, but she seems fine to me,” the doctor says to my mom. He had a name tag I could’ve read, but I didn’t think to look at it until he turns around to walk my mom to the reception desk. “All that’s left to do is to sign a little paperwork, and she’s free to go.”

It’s about now that I realize just how much my head hurts. As I try to process everything that could’ve happened, this pain constantly gets in the way, until I can’t take it anymore. I look around for any possible solution, from medicine to anesthetic to maybe another way to make myself pass out. Then, to the left of me on a metallic wheeled table, I see it:  _ Headache Medication,  _ the pill bottle said. A bit store brand for a hospital, but beggars can’t be choosers. The medicine is also rather far away from me. I try to reach my arm out for it, but I’m not even close. Then, I sit up to walk over to it, but this causes my head to pound even harder, to the point where I can’t even think about anything. God, why didn’t they even think about the potential of a headache? Why didn’t they give me any medication?! Even if they did, it definitely wasn’t enough!

Through my searing pain, I can faintly hear some wheels moving, which I pay no mind to until something taps my head. I turn to see what it is, and it’s that wheeled table with the medication again. Though I assume it to be a doctor, I look around and see that there is nobody in the room at all. This is already strange enough, but as I grab the pill bottle to alleviate my headache, I realize that the pain is already gone. Now I can finally concentrate on what happened and what I should do. Obviously, I should just stay here until I’m discharged, but how long have I been out for? According to the clock on the other side of the room, it’s about 8:55, and judging by the sun in the window, that’s an AM. That means… It's third period!

_ The physics test! _

Okay, no more time for waiting, I need all the time I can get for that. I burst out of the hospital bed and into the waiting room, right past Nashi.

“Wait! Don’t you want to rest for a day?” I can hear her call out.

“Sorry mom, urgent things are going on in school!” I reply back. I can hear her sigh, but I don’t care. The doors open for me as I make my sprint, which although I didn’t see one of those Automatic Door signs, it was convenient nonetheless. Now, what did I need to remember for the exam? Let’s see, electricity, magnetism, I think one of the equations has the constant Q in it… was it a sine wave or a cosine wave?

“Ringo!”

Was that Arle’s voice I just heard? 

Yeah, it was. On the left side of me is Arle, who has the privilege of not having to worry about school at all. For once, I slow down to talk to her.

“Were you even paying attention back there?” If Arle had to ask me that, then I probably wasn’t.

“What’d I miss?”

“You were about to run into that tree back there, but it just fell down and you didn’t even notice!”

I look back and see an oak tree, uprooted and on its side. I must have been really in my head if I didn’t notice the huge booming crash it probably made.

“Huh,” I remark, “normally I’d go and investigate that, but I have more important matters on hand. See you later!”

“Ringo, wait! Don’t you think that’s a little weird?”

“Of course it is!” I say as I start to run off again. She’s right, though: this really is weird. The wheeled table I could probably pass off as the wind or something, but that tree? It is  _ not _ a windy day at all! There’s no way that can just happen on its own!

But you know what? Whatever! I can always investigate what occurred there, but I only have one chance to pass this test. I run over to Suzuran High, where they’re probably thinking I died of an aneurysm or something, and enter through the back doors, where already I can tell I’m receiving weird looks. 

Into the physics room I go, and the entire class has their eyes on me.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m late. Can I have my test now?”

“Um, yeah,” my teacher goes, “where have you been, anyway?”

“It’s a long story.” I pant, as I grab the papers from my teacher’s hand and head over to my seat. Almost immediately it hits me with a difficult question that causes me to instinctively put my hands on my forehead in confusion. I would’ve studied this part if I was actually conscious last evening! But no matter. It’s now or never. I start writing what I know down.

So there are two objects that are somewhat close to each other. These two objects will naturally give off a force of attraction, though infinitesimal, because of Newton’s law of gravitation. If Object 1 is twice as large as Object 2, and the objects are a meter apart, then I place that variable there… carry the two… 

Wait a second.

The entire time I was writing that my hands were still on my forehead. In fact, right now my pencil is just standing upright on the paper. Am I controlling that?

Nervously, I look around to see if anyone else saw what I saw. Everyone else is just as focused on not failing as I was, so I don’t have to worry about explaining that because I certainly couldn’t. I look back to my paper and see that the pencil has not only fallen down but is also rolling away due to the slanted nature of the desk. Before I could even reach out my arm to catch it, the pencil stops. Suddenly, it all clicks: the meteor, the table, the tree, the pencil… 

_ No _ . 

This  _ can’t _ be happening.

I refuse to believe that what my two eyes saw in front of me _ actually  _ occurred. 

…

I must be going insane. That’s it. The meteor is causing me to hallucinate, making me see things that don’t actually exist. Sooner or later this is all going to catch up to me, and I’m going to end up in an insane asylum. And to prove that, I’m going to touch this pencil.

Nope, that pencil is touchable. Okay, this is all somehow real. I’m not crazy enough to comprehend this.

Currently, I think I’m currently going through a panic attack, an existential crisis, and even a mid-life crisis as well. Has this been happening since the meteor? Are there other side effects I don’t know of? Did I accidentally force that door open? How many people saw that?!

The test? That doesn’t matter anymore. And the worst part is, I’m just trying to act normal here for everyone else’s sanity. How would you feel if you were taking a test and the smartest kid in the class started to have a mental breakdown? At this point, I’m just writing things down that you might write on a physics test. Some numbers, individual letters, and maybe a greek letter here or there. I probably wrote a symbol on here that doesn’t even mean anything. But I like to hope that many months down the line, we can all look back on this and laugh. With the test “finished,” I head over to the desk and turn it in.

“May I use the restroom?” I ask, with no intention of actually using the restroom.

“Yeah, sure,” the teacher says, without even looking up from his book.

That’s enough for me to book it right out of there.

So what’s my game plan, you’re asking? Bold of you to assume I actually thought that far ahead. If one of the hall monitors asks me where I was going, my response would be somewhere between a babbling mess and a noise that no human has ever heard before. Luckily, they probably think I’m printing some important paper, so not even the principal seems that phased when I run right past him. I just really need an out. A place to think by myself, if you will. The isolation isn’t helping, though, because at this point I’ve sprinted knee-deep into the forest and I still can’t think properly. They always said that nature was a way to calm the mind, so why isn’t it helping when I need it the most?

Wait. I got it.

_ The meteor _ .

This might be coming from all the sci-fi movie marathons Maguro asks me to watch with him, but a lot of the time, when you fix a problem, you go directly to the source. Obviously, my newfound psychic powers came from the meteor, so maybe, just maybe, if I touch the meteor again, this could all be over soon. Sure, this is a massive stretch of the imagination, but it’s an idea, at the very least. Now, where did that rock land? Do I take a left after the fifth or sixth tree?

“Ringo!”

It’s Arle again. 

“Have you figured out why that tree fell over?”

Ah, right, the tree. On any other day, I would’ve made a mental chart of everything that could possibly explain that. She’d know something was up if I said I didn’t know. What should I say then? Uh…

“Beats me.”

Look, I’ve had the craziest day ever, and it’s only 10:00 AM. I’m really not in the mood to think right now.

“Wow, you don’t even know? This really must be a mystery.” Judging by how she’s still confused by simply thinking about this tree, she probably still hasn’t seen the meteor yet. 

“Indeed it is. Indeed, it is” I say with next to no confidence at all. “Well, see ya.”

“Again? What’s so important that you have to ignore this twice?”

“When this is all over, I’ll tell you!” I call out to her as I run off again. She’s definitely confused right now, and it really hurts not being able to tell her. I hope Arle knows that it hurts me as well.

In the distance, I can see it: that chunk of space rock that started it all. Now I can see why I had trouble looking for it: the bright red color it had when it landed had cooled down to a much more mundane grey. The glow it had was now gone as well. As such, if it were not all the dirt it displaced, the rock looked like it had always been a part of Nahe Woods. Now might be the chance I have to go back to my normal life.

I go up to the meteor chunk and touch it. Nothing feels different. Just to make sure, I look at a branch on a tree to see if I still have these powers. It snaps and falls onto the ground. And now I’m fresh out of ideas.

So I guess that’s it, huh? For the rest of my life, I’m doomed to suppress this secret from everyone else? Just imagine if someone actually found out; I’d be abducted by the government and be cryogenically frozen until they invent cloning. Maybe they’ll just be impatient and dissect me outright. If I’m lucky, they might hire me as a mercenary and have me take out criminals for the rest of my life. Who knows? Certainly not me. 

“Ringo, what’s that?”

Unbeknownst to myself, Arle followed me into the forest. I should be surprised, but I really can’t blame her. She knows me, and when I’m running around like a lunatic, something interesting is definitely going on. This meteor here is definitely something. So what else am I supposed to say? I definitely can’t hide this anymore.

“Arle… just watch.”

I take a deep breath. Arle has been through things much weirder than I could ever think of. She’d probably understand this, right? More than anyone else in Primp in Suzuran. I focus my eyes on one of the fallen logs and… 

“Ringo…”

There’s this sparkle in her eyes upon witnessing the floating log that tells me that this is beyond anything she’s ever experienced. I think I’ve done it. I’ve finally surprised her.

Then, out of nowhere, she grabs me by my shoulders.

“You could be a hero!” She exclaims eagerly.

I know there are amazing possibilities that come out of this, but I still get the feeling that this is a bad idea.


	2. The Hero Suzuran Doesn't Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ringo tries to figure out how to use these powers.

**Chapter 2: The Hero Suzuran Doesn’t Need**

“Look, Arle, I understand why you’d want me to be a hero” I say, out of the pure kindness of my heart, “but I think that’s a bit dangerous for me right now. I’m not a thrillseeker, you know.”

“Who said you needed to be a thrillseeker?” 

I should have an argument, but I really don’t. She’s got me there. Guess I’ll bring up another point.

“Even still, this world doesn’t need a hero. We’re doing fine enough as is.”

“Poppycock!” She exclaims. “This world would be in shambles without heroes! There’d be bodies on the streets, blood everywhere, and total anarchy! You just don’t know what a hero is!”

Now I’ve seen her passionate before, but not for something like this. There must be something I’m missing because right now, she’s giving me this glare that kinda says, “You know exactly what I’m talking about!” And whatever it is, I definitely should. Then she sighs.

“Just follow me.”

She grabs me by the hand and starts to bolt deeper into the forest. I’m having trouble keeping up with her without giving up and being dragged along on the ground. I’m not surprised she can run faster than me; I’m not usually the one having to deal with dancing fish and demons. Still, though, what does she have to show me that’s so important to her?

As we speed past countless trees, I can see what she’s sending me to: a cave. More specifically, Schezo’s cave. What would he have to show me? Sure, Schezo and Arle don’t have the worst relationship around, but they’re not on the level of budding friends. Even still, Schezo is not a paragon for heroism. Arle is usually the one who saves the day, not him. On a similar, yet slightly unrelated note, he’s not allowed within 50 feet of a high school. The reasons are rather harmless, really, but still.

Now that I can see Schezo in that cave, he’s up to his normal routine. A slash of the sword there, a jab there, and occasionally a spin, as if to show off. He’s not the type to flex, so somehow there’s a practical use for that in combat. Maybe I’m judging a bit too early, but what am I supposed to get out of this?

“Hey there, Schezo!” Arle starts the conversation for me, as she knows that despite his well-meaning dialogue, I still wouldn’t entirely trust him if we were the only two people in an empty room.

“Greetings, Arle. I see you have brought along a friend,” He responds. “Should I know her?”

“Of course you should! It’s Ringo, remember?”

“Why should I?”

I’m supposed to look up to this guy?

“Well, uh,” Arle says, realizing that this might not have been the best idea, “You… consider yourself a hero, right?”

“Correct. Always have been, always will be. Even if I tried not to, I’d still be one.” He boasts. 

“Don’t you have a certain saying for that kind of thing?” Arle says as if to coerce some sort of motivational speech from him. Has she done this before?

“Is this for Ringo?” He groans, finally stopping with his swordplay. Now that I think about it, he might be more friendly all this if Arle wasn’t interrupting what I assume to be incredibly important to him. I’m almost positive now that Arle has done this before, but I’m not sure who it would be for.

“Yeah! Come on, man, give off your oh-so-great wisdom!” It’s about now where I realize she’s going for the “inflate the ego” strategy to get what she wants from him. 

“Ugh. Fine. What do you want to hear?” 

“How do  _ you _ , personally, define a hero?”

“You solve problems for other people.”

And just like that, he goes back to his swordplay. 

“That’s it?” I say, “You dragged me all the way here for this? Anyone could’ve told me that!  _ You  _ could’ve told me that!”

“Can I go back to messing around with my sword?” Schezo interjects, seeming just as disinterested as I am. And yes, I do realize the unintended double meaning with what he said, but quite frankly, I find it a bit cruel to laugh at him now. It’s not his fault he’s so bad with words. He certainly doesn’t seem like the type to be school smart.

“Yes. Yes you can,” I respond to salvage Arle’s less-than-stellar idea. And with that, I grab Arle and drag her out of the cave.

“So what on Earth was that for? Did we really need to go through all that?” I ask Arle, feeling embarrassed about the whole thing. Arle was never the best socially, but she’s better than this.

“Okay, maybe I hyped that up a bit too much. But think about it!  _ Anyone  _ is a hero! You’ve been a hero countless times and you don’t even know it!” What she says sounds decent enough on paper, but there’s definitely some oversimplification here. 

“You’re missing something,” I repute. “Sure, anyone can be a hero, but some heroes are more heroic than others. I can help an old lady cross the street, but I know what you’re talking about here. That ‘stopping crime and saving the day’ type. Don’t we have other people for that?”

“Yeah, but you could be  _ special _ !”

I roll my eyes.

“Alright, fine,” she concedes, “we don’t have to go for the big time now…”

“Now? How about  _ ever _ ! Am I not clear?”

“Come on, Ringo, do you not see all the problems this world has? Don’t you want to solve them?”

“What problems? We’re all doing totally fine!”

And then I hear something off in the distance. “Help! Help!” It goes.

“Arle, you hear that?”

“Of course I did!”

At least I don’t have super hearing.

“So are we going to head over there or what?” Arle asks.

“You know what? Fine. Maybe we can negotiate with whatever problem there is over there. You know,  _ peacefully _ ,” I reassure.

Arle gives me a disappointed look, but I’m not going to change my mind. Arle might be a wilderness type of girl, but this is the real world. She’s going to learn how communication separates us from the barbarians.

“Please! I’m sorry! I’ll never be mean to you or anyone you love again!” The distant voice quivers. Now that I’m going closer to it, I’m realizing now that this voice is the voice of Klug. Since he’s prone to hubris, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Neither does the next voice.

“Forget it! I won’t even give you the pleasure of saying goodbye to everything you know dear!” No doubt about it, that’s Feli’s voice. Maybe I should run faster. I don’t need another person going to the hospital today.

When I arrive at the scene I see exactly what I thought I would see: Klug, cowering on the grass next to a tree, and Feli, who is towering over him, despite being much shorter. If it were any other child this might be actually cute, but this is Feli we’re talking about. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was somewhat responsible for the missing poster I saw the other day. Out of all the people to negotiate with, this might be the hardest. Oh well. When I do successfully talk her out of this, it’ll be all the more proof that my ideas work. I walk up to Feli, ready to defuse a hostage situation.

“Now hold on here!” I interject. “What’s going on?”

“This…  _ monster _ … just told me absolute heresy!” Feli turns to me and hisses. Call me skeptical, but I think she’s probably overreacting about whatever just happened.

“What’d you say?” I ask Klug.

“All I said was that trying to master candy magic might not be the best idea for Lemres!”

“Quiet! I don’t want to hear it again!” She screams at Klug. Just as I suspected: Feli is creepily swooning over Lemres. In more interesting news, a leaf on the tree behind them just fell off its branch.

I’m sure you’re aware of the saying that arguing with an idiot is like playing chess with a pigeon. This also applies to Feli, but I’m not entirely sure how she fits into the saying because, let’s face it, Feli’s no pigeon. I might be able to talk some sense into her if she was just crazy, but she’s also holding two dowsing rods and I’m not. Gonna be honest here: I’m beginning to think Arle might be right about this. But I could back out now, and I probably should, but you know what? Maybe I can be a master negotiator. You never know ‘till you try.

“Now, I understand that he’s making you upset, but I’d like you to take a moment and imagine how Klug feels,” I explain this in the calmest words I possibly can. “He’s currently being cornered and threatened by a girl holding potentially dangerous objects because of something he said!” For a moment, I think I can see the innocence in her eyes. If I’m not mistaking it for murderous desire again, then this is the first time I’ve seen her act like an actual child.

“I… I…” She stammers.

Now for the follow-through.

“Why don’t you apologize for what you’ve done? It’s never too late to change!”

“How…”

She’s thinking about it! She’s actually thinking about it! I  _ won _ !

“...How  _ dare _ you take his side!”

…

Oh.

In less than a split second, she lunges toward me. I know she has the intent of seeing what my blood looks like. I know I told Arle that I could solve this through simple words. I know this goes against myself. But I guess this might be a teaching moment for me. I hold out my hand as if to stop her right then and there, but I already know I don’t need to do that to use my powers. Must be instinct.

But here’s the thing: stopping her was the easy part. Now I have two people, one currently floating in the air and the other witnessing the person floating in the air, with no logical explanation that either of them know about. If I try to let them off as a warning, then one of the two will probably go around talking about my powers to other people. I’ll end up as the “town hero,” and let me tell you, I do not want to spend my spare time rescuing cats from trees. So I do the only other logical thing to do: be the exact opposite of a hero for these two. I levitate Feli right next to Klug and whisper to both of them,

“Neither of you tell anyone about my name, okay? Either you’re taking this to the grave… or I’ll send you there myself.”

Okay, I’ll admit, I laid it on a bit thick there. But put yourself in my shoes for a moment: you’re an honors schoolgirl who spends most of her time learning and studying for all these subjects you’re not supposed to take until at least next year. You really don’t need anything else on your hands, especially something this physical. Do I regret my wording? Maybe, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Right now, it gets the point across, and that’s all I really need.

Now, back to the story at hand: I currently have Klug and Feli at my knees with absolute terror in my eyes. Klug being scared isn’t new at all, but Feli? She’s a cute little girl that even the toughest of men are scared of. I’ll admit, when I saw Feli like that, I scared myself. Seriously, why was I given these powers? There are countless other people better fit to be a hero!

Trying to get them to forget, I say “I’ll let you two off the hook this time. Now scram.” They sprint off. 

Now that was a disaster and a half. In an attempt to try and be the paragon of all, I ended up acting as an anti-hero in that situation. Is this what Arle sees as being a hero? Because it sure doesn’t feel it, I’ll say.

I hear Arle walking up behind me. I already know what she’s going to say: “See? Being a hero is easy!” And I’ll have to go off on her about how I haven’t solved anything. If anything, I merely created another problem. This goes clearly against her philosophy, but she’s going to be none the wiser.

“Ringo…” She starts, in a voice much softer than usual. 

Although, if she begins a sentence like that, maybe she’s thinking what I’m thinking.

“Yeah, I told you.” I go. “Now, can we just forget about all this? I’ll try to think of a way to hide my powers. It shouldn’t be that hard. Whatever I need to do, I learn it quickly.”

“Look, you don’t need to be so down about all this. Think of it this way: you like to learn, right?”

“Yeah…” I ponder. “Where are you going with all of this?”

“Don’t think of this as some sort of duty. Think of it as something new to learn! A new part of the world to piece together!”

She knows me too well.

“Tell ya what,” she continues, “from now on, I’ll help you in your quest to be a hero. Think of me as your mentor! How about that?”

I would try to argue, but considering that I help Amitie with magic that I don’t even know how to use, I’d end up as a hypocrite.

“Alright, fine,” I concede, “but on one condition: we do this at  _ my _ pace. If I don’t feel like I need training, I won’t come to you for help. Understood?”

“Sure do!” And she reaches out her hand in an attempt to go for a handshake. I follow suit. Neither of us have decent handshakes, but that just puts us on equal footing.

Off in the distance, the Suzuran bell rings. I just spent the school day in a forest. 

“So, when do you think that you’ll–”

“Sorry, Arle, gotta go!” I interrupt as I run away. I really don’t want to interrupt, but I’m not sure I have much of a choice.

Now, to head back over to the school to talk to Maguro would be stupid. He’d definitely ask where I was, and let me tell you, I would have no idea how to respond. Instead, I’m just gonna head home and make up some lie of how my day went in case mom asks. I know I had a test in physics, I think there was a lab I was supposed to do in chemistry, and we usually just take notes in astronomy. There! I’m prepared for any question she might ask me.

The trek back to my room was nothing spectacular. No other oddities or loose ends to my powers to be found. Heck, nobody even bats an eye at me as I walk home. You know what? I’m beginning to think I was overreacting when I realized I had psychic powers. There’s no way to prove that any of these telekinetic anomalies are actually from me, as somebody accusing me would be just as suspicious. As long as I keep my cool and don’t make it too obvious, I can use these to my advantage! I’ve had too many situations where I want to grab a book from my bookshelf to read myself to sleep, but now I don’t even need to get up to do that! I wouldn’t even need to actually close the door as I enter my room! Man, the applications for this thing are just piling up! 

“Ringo, you look happier than usual. Did anything big happen?”

It takes me a moment to realize that somebody actually said anything because I was so lost in my thoughts. Matter of fact, I wasn’t even looking where I was. I was just about to telekinetically open the door in open sight without thinking that through at all. If it wasn’t for my mother cleaning the windows outside and trying to strike up a conversation with me, I would’ve been publicly exposed, and then most likely surgically examined by government officials.

“Today was just an all-around great day.”

“Ah, I see.”

I’m surprised I even managed to say that after the harrowing thought I just had. In an instant, my optimism was gone. Shot down like the fragile bird it is. Do you see why I don’t want this again? Somebody much braver than me could do this better, but again, I’m not even an adult. I know Arle offered some more “hero” training, whatever that means, but I don’t think I’ll be using them for now, if ever. 

“Ringo?”

It’s my mom again. She probably noticed my smile go away. I can’t even think of anything to say to her, so I just run off to my room.

I spend the rest of the night lying down on my bed, thinking of some way to mask my powers if I ever accidentally use them. If I’m outside or in an open-window room and I accidentally make something move, I could probably ignore it and nobody would bat an eye to what happened. They would just assume it’s the wind. But completely indoors? I got nothing for that. Would they piece together the fact that I’m always there when it happens? Would they think that much about it? Or would they just create some sort of ghost story where a student was drowned in a toilet and now he gets his revenge by terrorizing the new people at Suzuran High? Not that ghosts would be entirely out of the question. God knows, If I wasn’t the culprit for all of this, I’d probably believe it. In fact, I think… 

My alarm goes off. It’s 6:15. I just thought myself to sleep. And I have this massive headache, like the one I had the last time I woke up. Getting up again causes the same painful sensation. I’m not even sure if I have any medication in my room. No worry, though: if I just lay here, Mom will probably come in, ask why I haven’t got up, and then I will complain about my headache. Is the door open for her? Let me just open that from here, so she will get the point.

And suddenly my headache is gone. Didn’t that happen the last time? I know I’m repeating myself here, but there’s a lot of consistency here to the point where it can’t be a coincidence. Does this mean I now get a headache if I don’t use my psychic powers enough? Do I have to use them every now and then, even if I’m in public? Great! Maybe I should just make my own ghost story before going to school today.

Going through the rest of my usual morning routine would be pointless. Nothing important happens, and my parents don’t even know about anything suspicious, so that conversation can’t even hope to come up at the table. I don’t even know why I’m bringing it up right now; there’s no way that anyone could even know about it just yet.

“So who do you think it was?”

“Dunno. They wouldn’t tell me.”

Excuse me? What are they talking about? 

Call me paranoid, but I get the feeling they’re talking about what happened yesterday. You know… in the forest. 

… 

Yeah, I’m definitely paranoid. And right now, I don’t have time to make conspiracy theories. I really need to catch up on my schoolwork after missing so much class.

“Do they teach psychic magic at Primp?”

“I don’t think so. If they would, then this wouldn’t be much of a deal, now would it?”

Now that’s a bit too specific. And it doesn’t just stop there; eavesdropping in on multiple conversations, there are some consistent words that come up in all of them:

“Powers” “Psychic” “Magic?” “Klug” “Feli” “Primp” as if that’s all they’re actually saying.

And now I think I have the right to be paranoid.

Remember what I told Klug and Feli? “Neither of you tell anybody about my name.” I said nothing about spilling the beans about my powers. Knowing this, they probably realized that they could talk about the situation in Nahe Woods, as long as they don’t mention who I was. They know I’m particular like that. Ugh! Why can’t I think through my threats more? Now I’ve started a rumor going around both Primp and Suzuran, I’m the center of it! How am I supposed to go around on a day to day basis knowing that I’m the solution to a mystery?

“Heya, Ringo! Where were you yesterday?”

That’s Maguro’s voice. 

It’s moments like these where I wish I left the stove on.


	3. Everyone's Favorite Suspect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ringo tries to prolong her friends into thinking that she has any powers.

**Chapter 3: Everyone’s Favorite Suspect**

“Maguro! Buddy! I… uh… had a doctor’s appointment!”

“Two of them?”

How does he know about the first one?

“Yeah… I was really sick…” 

How do I explain why I’m healthy now?

“... But they were really good doctors!”

Hey, in a world of witchcraft and interdimensional space beings, spontaneous recovery should be a believable answer.

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay!”

Oh thank God, he believed it. Now that buys me some more time to make up excuses.

As the two of us stroll along into Suzuran, the people around us are still having conversations about this unknown menace to society. If I can hear it, then so should Maguro, but either he can’t hear it at all or he’s paying no mind to it as if he’s in his own little world. Strange, but I’m not gonna bring it up. Also, now that I’ve mentioned it, this story would be the kind of thing that he loves to learn about. The fact that he’s not going into more detail than I ever did about it only tells me that he hasn’t heard about it. Somehow.

Suddenly, Maguro stops in the middle of the street. He gives me no warning of that as if this was a spontaneous urge. Something has most definitely caught his attention. I walk back a bit and see what it is: A newspaper stand. You wanna know what the headline is?

**Mysterious Psychic Terrorizes Primp!**

I can’t even see his eyes, and yet I can so easily imagine them light up.

“Woah!” He starts off, “I didn’t even know that that could be real! I mean, I always saw things like that on TV, and I’ve fantasized about it multiple times before, and now it’s here! Man, just imagine what you would do if you had those powers!”

Oh, I don’t need to have much of an imagination to answer that.

“But why wouldn’t they reveal that?” he continues, “imagine the fame! The fortune! They’d be known across the world!”

“Oh, well,” I pretend to spitball, “some people just aren’t cut out for that kind of life. They’d much prefer just relaxing until they retire.”

“Like you?”

I was intentionally trying to not make that comparison, but… 

“Yeah. Like me.”

He puts his fingers on his chin as if to think about something. Hopefully, he’s thinking through what I said.

“Still, though, I’m curious to figure out who it is. You’re curious too, aren’t you?”

“W-wha–”

Apparently not.

“Of course not!” I stammer, “Everyone has a right to privacy! Would you like it if somebody revealed your secrets?”

“Obviously, I’d hate it, but my secrets can’t help out humanity! If we find this guy and figure out how to replicate it, imagine how much better humanity could be!”

Ugh. If I wasn’t in the situation I was in right now, I would totally agree with him. Continuing to argue with him on this matter wouldn’t get either of us anywhere, and I also can’t think of anything to convince him, so… 

“I guess you’re right. We’re not gonna go out and find this person, though! They’re probably not even happy that they made headlines.”

“Suit yourself.”

At this point, I grab Maguro by the collar.

“Did you even listen?!  _ We  _ are not finding this person, you hear me? Neither of us will do that!”

“Okay, jeez! Why are you being so aggressive about this? You wouldn’t even speak up if somebody got your order wrong!”

I have no response to that. Now my paranoia is revealing cracks in my secret identity. There really is no middle ground to this thing, is there? 

Letting go of Maguro, I backpedal with “Sorry about that.” No reasoning or anything, just an apology. Again, if I could see his eyes, they would almost certainly be filled with suspicion.

The rest of the walk to Suzuran High is… awkward, to say the least. Any conversation we have after that is tinged with the moment by the newspaper. Is he thinking about it too much? Too little? Or maybe just the right amount? I’m not gonna know until it’s too late, and you can bet that bothers me. I’ve already apologized– shouldn’t that be enough?

Let’s skip a bit. First period was nothing, besides the continuation of the rumors spreading around. Honestly, I’m surprised it hasn’t mutated into some sort of ghost story like I speculated. They may be gossipy teenagers, but damn, they are focused. Right now, I’m in second-period chemistry, doing an experiment with my good friend, Risukuma. He’s not a big fan of magic, and he’d probably categorize what’s going on with me as such, so I don’t bring it up, and neither does he. 

“Ringo, could you grab me some sodium nitrate?”

I slowly walk towards the tray where all the bottles of sodium nitrate are and grab one of them. Putting any less thought into it would cause me to just levitate one of them to me without realizing it. I almost congratulate myself…

But then the headache comes back. 

It’s really hard to not collapse in pain right now, but I’m way too close to a table full of glass to do that. I’d end up knocking it over, have glass fly all over the place, and then I’d surely be questioned. And the pain… I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: it’s absolutely unparalleled. Even having this simple thought is nearly too much for me to handle. But I refuse to use my powers. A little bit of pain is worth years of God knows what to me. It has to be. It has to… 

The next thing I know, I wake up in the school clinic. The nurse is taking my temperature. I can’t see what it is, but it doesn’t seem remarkable at all, because she doesn’t even bat an eye to the number she sees.

“It’s not your temperature,” she says as if she’s checked countless other parts of me while I was out cold, “I don’t get it. There’s absolutely no reason for you to pass out. So why did you?”

“How should I know?” I respond, “you’re the one that went to medical school, not me.”

That sarcastic response may make it seem like I was okay again, but in reality, I was still not. That headache went nowhere in the time I was unconscious, and now I have myself a dilemma on my hands. On one hand, I could try and discreetly move something,  _ anything _ , so that my headache might go away. On the other hand, I could try and stumble out of here with my headache, with my secrets intact, but not my dignity. 

Now that I think about it, I really don’t care about my dignity when it comes to my peers. Option B it is.

I jumped from the clinic bed as if nothing was wrong. I may have stumbled a bit from the head rush I gave myself, but this nurse isn’t the kind to keep me back because of that.

“Would you look at that!” I exclaim, “I feel cured! See you around!”

I run out the door with my headache intact and look at the clock. 8:55. It’s still second period, but there’s not much time left in it. Oh well. I’m not the type of person to just walk around the school and pretend I’m not skipping class at all. 

When I walk back into the classroom, everyone is looking at me again. Normally I’m annoyed by this, but I feel like they have a good reason for that this time around. If I was a teacher, I wouldn’t let me back into class either. Risukuma, in particular, is looking at me weird.

“Are you sure you’re in good condition for chemistry?” He asks like a father.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. This is chemistry, not the Olympics.”

“I don’t know. Not being prepared for your experiments won’t give you the best results.”

“Oh, come now! Don’t gatekeep like that!”

“Fine, fine. I’ll do the observations, though.”

Whatever has me do less work right now.

Wait, did I just really think that? Me? Ringo Ando? If anyone else said that, I’d hate them! God, this whole endeavor is destroying me. Now I’m beginning to wonder if keeping my powers a secret even is a good idea. I mean, Arle was willing to help me out, why can’t Risukuma or Maguro? Although, they aren’t really fighters like she is… I’ll need to put some more thought into that.

Right now, though, I’ve got a lab to work on and a headache. The greatest combination known to man. Slowly but surely, I’m learning to work through the pain, but I’m not gonna say it’s become easy at all. I look at the next step of the lab: “Burn sodium nitrate in a flask for 5 minutes.” Simple enough. I pour some in and place it above the lit bunsen burner. I think I did a bad job placing it, though: the flask itself is slightly tilted. It shouldn’t affect the data at all, so it should be fine.

Although, if I can move it ever so slightly with telekinesis, I might be able to get rid of my headache. It’s a risky maneuver, but I can’t think of any other way to use them without anyone knowing it. Here goes.

The flask tilts. And then it tilts some more. Far more than I wanted it to. It falls onto the ground and shatters into a dozen pieces.

“Hm,” Risukuma analyzes the scattered shards, “There must have something I missed. There always is.”

I’ve just awakened a monster by accident.

Risukuma is the most scientific man I know. Everything he does follows the scientific method: question, hypothesis, experiment, data, and conclusion. If he can’t figure out what went wrong with his hypothesis, he  _ will  _ find out sooner or later, It’ll drive him insane if it has to get that far. One time he interrogated a magician because he couldn’t figure out how to pull a rabbit out of a hat. If his investigation leads him to reveal the secrets of one of his friends, so be it. It’s all in the name of science and the pursuit of progress.

The only question is, could he figure it out? As I said, telekinesis is completely unheard of, even in a world full of magic. You’d think someone would invent that by now, with the miracles you can supposedly learn under the Primp magic school, but that’s beside the point. Ris could solve this case if magic was the answer, but this is completely new. Can he still piece the clues together? Or will this drive him mad? Am I going to walk in tomorrow and see the bulletin board is filled with pictures attached with red string?

_ BRRIIIIIIING! _

Guess that’ll be a question for tomorrow.

After a couple of periods, I walk past the chemistry room and glance in. Risukuma is in there again, staring intensely at our lab table. Seems like it’s been bothering him for the past couple of periods in his own class. The fact that he hasn’t figured it out yet means he’s still not gonna suspect me, so I figure it would be no harm to walk in and strike up a conversation. Just to make sure I’m not suspicious at all.

“Any luck?” I ask.

“Not yet. I’ve been studying this for hours now and I still have no idea what went on.”

Hours? Has he been here this entire time?

“Aren’t there other classes here?”

“They merely did their experiments around me. They know how I am.”

Wow. I should’ve expected that, but wow.

“Aw, come on!” I try to dissuade him, “this isn’t that big of a deal!”

“Blasphemy!” he barks. “We could be on the brink of a breakthrough here! Imagine how much we could help society with this unknown variable!”

“Well… uh…” I try to continue the conversation without seeming suspicious, “It’s gotta be something plausible!”

I nonchalantly– well, I say that now, but it probably was suspicious at the time– walk over to the door.

“Wait!” Risukuma stops me, “Don’t you want to know as well? You’re the curious type, too!”

“Just tell me when you’ve figured it out. I can see you’ve been at it for a while, and it doesn't seem you’ll figure it out anytime soon!”

Would I have stuck around if I actually didn’t know what had happened there? I’d go with probably not. Sure, I like to know answers as much as the next guy, but I’m patient, and I gotta admit, Ris is one of the best sleuths in town, even better than me. And right now, that’s very concerning.

As I walk out the door, Maguro enters, as if he were to ask the same questions I did in a less guilty matter. I’ll just catch him up to speed to save everyone some time.

“He still doesn’t know, and I doubt he ever will.”

Again, Mags gives me a look, even though I can’t see his eyes. I’ve been around him so much that I know when he’s giving a look. No matter, though, I scurry out all the same.

And as soon as I walk out, I get pushed aside.

I look around. It’s empty. Did I actually feel that right? Or was that another side effect of my powers that I’m only learning about now? The complete lack of people means it can’t be the former, and if it really is the latter, then it’s something I’ll figure out later, especially not now. I’m ready to go about my day. Just grab a textbook for something on the way to read to the next period and…

Hey, where’s my backpack gone? I swear I just had it on me. There’s no way it’d be anywhere else. Are my powers driving me insane?

“Oh, now you notice it!”

That voice. It can only be one thing…

I look up. Yup. It’s Ecolo, hanging out on the ceiling, with my backpack in hand. His teasing is annoying enough on any other day, but right now, I’m really not having it now.

“Give it back!” I blurt out in reckless abandon.

“Oh, you’re extra feisty today!” He jokes, “Has anyone ever told you how cute you are when you’re angry?”

It’s hard to reason with someone like Ecolo. He’s a man who can be anywhere, anytime he likes, and he just so happens to like me in particular. He could’ve chosen anyone else in this universe– no, multiverse– and somehow, he came to the conclusion that after seeing every single woman ever known, I was the best one for him. At first, I was really confused about his choice, but after seeing just how childish he actually is, I’m slowly beginning to piece together why. He’s giving me a really good case to stoop to his level for just a moment, but I won’t.

Ecolo shakes my bag up and down. “Wow! It’s really heavy today!” He exclaims, “You got a lot of homework today?”

You know what?

I look to my left. Nobody. I look to my right. Still no one. I look back into the chemistry room, and Risukuma and Maguro are still fixated on the table. If this backfires, let this be known that this was a calculated risk.

The backpack slips out of Ecolo’s hand and back into mine. He looks surprised, but he shouldn’t be; he is omnipotent, after all. Suddenly, the look of shock is replaced with a smirk.

“Wow! I didn’t think you actually had the guts to do that! You’re braver than I thought.”

“If you really knew me to the extent you boast about, you’d know that my education is important to me!”

Ecolo chuckles. “I knew that! I just wanted to see to what extent! You’d risk revealing your secrets just to get your homework back?”

“You know about this?!”

Both of us stare at each other for a moment in an odd mutual understanding.

“Actually,” I correct myself, “Don’t answer that. So what do you want?”

“I’ve already gotten what I wanted,” he responds, “just a little teasing with my favorite person in the multiverse! Toodle-oo!”

And like smoke, he vanishes. 

For Ecolo standards, this was pretty light… and it should not be that light. His usual shenanigans are along the lines of warping reality or taking an involuntary field trip to the void. There’s something up there has to be. Maybe he swapped my backpack with some sort of anti-matter? Or he–

Out of the corner of my eye, I see my worst nightmare: Maguro and Risukuma are no longer inspecting the table to a molecular level and are instead looking at me. I can’t see Maguro’s eyes, but I know he’s absolutely shocked. Ris, however, has a sparkle of intrigue in his eyes.

_ They noticed. _

_ And they’re walking up to me. _

I don’t even know what to do anymore. Do I run? Try to explain it off as another one of Ecolo’s tricks? Or just pretend that nothing happened at all? I can’t pretend it didn’t happen; I’m smart, and that makes me bad at being dumb. If I do try to argue, I don’t think I can convince them both at once. Maguro and Risukuma are like opposite ends of a magnet: they love to be with each other but are nothing alike. An argument or lie will probably satisfy one of them, but not the other. Maybe if I manage to separate them and give them two different stories, I might be able to pull it off. But where would I send each of them? This is only a hallway, and–

“Ringo…”

The entire time I was thinking of a half-decent plan, Mags and Ris have exited the room, and are now talking to me. Despite my powers, I do not have the strength for  _ this _ .

“Why haven’t you told us about this? Imagine the applications!”

I feel like I’m going in circles.


	4. The Sidekick Mindset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ringo tries to convince herself that she can negotiate with others to have everyone get along.

**Chapter 4: The Sidekick Mindset**

“Okay, let me set the record straight,” I say immediately, in an attempt to prevent history from repeating itself, “I am not a figure of justice. Nor a paragon. Nor a hero. Capiche? I have this odd power, and that’s that. Now can we  _ please  _ never talk about this again?”

“No way! This discovery is way too big to be kept secret!” Ris exclaims. “Did Jonas Salk keep the polio vaccine to himself?”

“Well, no, but he had a solid reason to! What is this gonna help with?”

“Who knows? Maybe your DNA can help the world!”

I sigh. This… this is exactly what I didn’t want to happen.

So what am I supposed to say to him? As I said, Risukuma is the embodiment of science, to a near exaggerated extent. If he was given an infinite amount of money to do whatever he wanted with, he’d solve every single problem humanity had within his lifetime… through massive amounts of blood. And let me tell you, it wouldn’t be his.

The only option I have is to kick this can further down the line. But I can’t be doing this forever. Eventually, I’m gonna be juggling so many cans around that I can’t control all of them at once, and one of these cans is just gonna be left on the street for somebody to pick up. The question is, what’s my limit?

Ugh. I’ve been thinking about this for too long. I need to respond.

“Whatever,” I say “maybe it will, maybe it won’t. Now, let’s move on to something else before anyone else knows about it. And let emphasize this: nobody is going to learn about this.  _ Nobody _ ! You hear me?”

Mags and Ris silently nod. Good. At least I got that across over anything else.

So after that absolutely delightful conversation between good pals, things almost return back to normal between the three of us. We manage to kick off a nice debate about the direction of future space travel and where it should be going. Personally, I’d be delighted to view everything the universe has to offer. Imagine what the edge of it looks like! A nice little argument only strengthens friendships.

And yet… there’s this odd tension in the air. If you exclude everything that’s happened because of my psychic powers which, I know, is a lot, today has been a completely normal day. I’ve actually been relaxed in most of my classes. I haven’t been relaxed since before all of these escapades. So why am I now suddenly uneasy? Is this another side effect of my powers? How do I figure out where it begins and ends?! And now I’m even tenser! What’s doing all this? It can’t be me!

Now I’m beginning to wonder how Mags would be if he was in this situation. Let’s see… Considering that he’s a big superhero fan, he’d be absolutely ecstatic to realize he got what he got. Without even a second thought, he’d probably flaunt around calling himself the Savior of Suzuran to everyone around him. Of course, there would be some problems with his approach, but would it be better than mine? At least he wouldn’t be a constant nervous wreck. At least he’d have some pride. But I couldn’t do that. If there’s one thing I know best, it’s that I’m a sidekick. Who’s the hero? It really doesn’t matter. I exit the school and–

“Somebody! Stop this man!”

That’s the first thing I heard. I couldn’t even hear what Ris was saying over him.

Automatically, I knew it wasn’t good. I mean, that comes obvious when someone yells out to stop anyone in particular, but the tone of this exclamation was more urgent than you think. It’s as if something that didn’t normally happen around Suzuran just occurred. Something like… 

A crime.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see what all the fuss is: a man with a ski mask is running off with a brown cloth bag. In broad daylight. I’m trying to figure out his thought process behind this, but I just can’t figure out a solid reason. Was he too busy to do it at night? What’s taking up all his time? A job? And did he really think he could get away with this? In the modern-day? He surely hasn’t heard about forensics.

But no matter. I could keep asking these questions, but I wouldn’t get anywhere with them. Point is, crimes like these must be stopped. And by that, I mean that it’s the police’s time to shine.

What? You thought I was actually gonna try and inflict justice upon this man? I’m not one to try and run an entire organization out of their job. Besides, I meant what I said: nobody is going to learn about what I have. Just because there are some problems in the world, doesn’t mean I have to be the one to solve them. I’m not the center of the universe, you know. Some people are just better at solving problems than others, and in cases like these, it’s important that those people step up and prove their worth.

I suddenly feel a jolt from the side of my waist. Maguro is nudging me.

“Come on, show your stuff!”

“I’m not budging on this!” I persist. “There’s nothing you can do to change that!”

Surprisingly, this criminal is evading the law pretty well. He’s ducking and dodging around the finest weapons that the Suzuran Police have: bows and arrows. I remember Ris mentioning once that it’s ludicrous that our ranged weaponry hasn’t improved since the middle ages, but I say if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Now, though, I can feel this science bear radiating “I told you so” energy from his beady eyes. And now he’s looking at me as if he wants me to do something. Actually, now that I mention it, Mags is staring me down right in front of him too as the ski mask continues to run… towards us.

I know that he doesn’t know the three of us at all, but I feel like he does, and right now, he’s trying to tempt me. Joke’s on him, though; I’m staying put.

And guess what? This man, who has gained a significant distance from the cops and would probably get away from them if he just kept running, decided to look behind him to check his progress. And he trips. On the sidewalk that we’re walking down.

Someone get the door. It’s Opportunity, and he’s a loud knocker. 

The obvious solution here would be to telekinetically capture this criminal and make sure he doesn’t go anywhere. Depending on how benevolent and hardworking I felt, I could either force him to levitate there, completely unable to move, or I could just hang him up on a flagpole by his underwear to the amusement of everyone. But here’s the thing: I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to do this the human way: without powers. I’ll walk up to this man and convince him that it would be better to turn himself in than continue running. These people may be considered dangerous to the public, but at the end of the day, they’re human as well. Just a little bit of reasoning can change anyone.

So, like the person who’s proud of who they are normally, I walk up to this criminal with the intent to negotiate. Through the mask, I can see his eyes, and he seems to have no idea why I’m just casually strolling up to him. For a brief moment, I turn around and notice that Risukuma and Maguro seem to be excited. I know what they want me to do: psychically beat him into the ground and then toss him like a frisbee. But man, oh man, will they be disappointed at what I’m about to do.

To this ground ridden criminal, I offer him his hand. 

“Hey…” I gently coax, “We all know that you only did this out of a need for survival. You’re just a victim of the world you were thrown in. But I swear it’ll get better. It has to. And if you give yourself up peacefully, the cops might be able to help you out. So please…”

The masked man gets up, but I’m not celebrating just yet. There’s still a lot that could go on with this guy, and I’m not moving until I follow through with all of this.

“Might you take my suggestion?”

I stare into his eyes one more time for a glimpse of his emotion. For a moment, I think I can figure out exactly what he’s feeling… regret. A desire to change. He puts his hand on my arm.

“I’m sorry about this.”

And then… he runs off.

Just like that. No fanfare, no cool one-liner before he bolted, nothing. The police just gave up on chasing him at this point. Did they really believe that hard in me? They could’ve at least given me backup. But now… I’m by myself. Nobody’s supporting me right now; exactly what I worried about from the start.

I can hear footsteps from behind me. Mags and Ris’s, specifically. For the second time now I feel like I can predict what they’re going to say to me, and I don’t need to be that imaginative about it. But I’m not a quitter. I’m gonna stand my ground here. If I have to make a choice to sink or swim here, then I’ll see you in Atlantis.

“There’s no way I could consider doing it,” I say, without even turning around, “I’ve said it way too many times, but I’ll say it once more: Nobody. Gets. To know. You hear me?”

“But it would’ve been so much easier! If I was in your shoes, I would’ve just picked him up and–”

That’s all I heard. There was definitely more; I heard some sort of background noise, but this was the point where I tuned them out. Honestly, I don’t even know which one of them said it. I just walked off. Did they stop talking? Beats me. They probably looked like fools blabbering about supposed psychic powers to me in front of a public who knows that’s hogwash. And I’m not going to save them from their own embarrassment.

Sure, I could try and continue to argue with them, but would they budge? Probably not. They’re steadfast people, and I would know that more than anyone else, and they wouldn’t change their mind on something like this. So why bother? It’s a fruitless effort. 

I just kept walking. Past the sidewalk, past Suzuran Square, past all of that. I have no destination. I’m barely sure I have a journey. Do I want to cry? No. I’m too disappointed to do that. I don’t even know who I’m disappointed in. Me? My friends? Suzuran itself? It’s all too much in my head. I really just need to think.

Eventually, I get out of my head enough to realize I’ve walked all the way into Nahe Woods. It’s a destination, alright, and I think it might be the best place I have right now, so I just sit down on a stump. No unnecessary noise to cloud my thoughts. No situations where I would need to reveal myself. No… 

“Oh, there you are, Ringo! I haven’t seen you in a while!’

I turn around. It’s Amitie, who has no idea about anything I’ve gone through. The last time she saw me, she was running off by a meteor that crashed into this very forest. As far as she’s aware, I just went off to somewhere else. 

“I know we don’t have any practice scheduled for today,” She continues, “but if you want to, we can still do that! The tree is just a bit down that way!”

You know, now that I think of it, Amitie might just be my most trustworthy friend. Unlike me and so many other teens, who tend to worry about the real world and the problems that come with maturity, Amitie is still more of a child than anything else, despite being near my age. As I said, she wants to be a magician when she grows up, and my only memory of a magician was the same exact one with Risukuma and the rabbit. Even with Amitie’s type of magic, I’m struggling to think of a way she could find a sustainable job that isn’t some sort of entertainer. Could she make ice sculptures for a living? Or somehow power refrigerators? Would that even work at all? Although, maybe if she… Sorry, I got sidetracked for a bit there.

Point is, her mindset is a bit different compared with the majority of the students both a Primp and Suzuran. While there are obviously some drawbacks to this, this means that she takes secrets very seriously. 

“Ringo?” She asks again as she sits down next to me.

Paradoxically, she also seems to understand other people’s emotions better than a lot of adults I know. There’s this look of worry on her face as though she’s ready to be my therapist. At this point, I’ve already revealed my powers to all of my main friends except for her. Might as well even it out.

“Who do you see me as, Amitie?”

“Huh?”

“Let me clarify: what changes to me would be the most noticeable for you? It could be personality, looks, hell, even something not as obvious. If all of those became different, which one of those would you mention first to me?”

Amitie takes a bit to answer that. In her defense, it’s a weird question. I’m not even sure how I’d answer that about myself. Right now, I’d obviously answer with some sort of new power, but if all of this didn’t happen, that would never even cross my mind. This’ll be a fresh take from someone else, and right now, I really need that.

“I guess if you became more… What's the word… out there, I’d definitely notice.”

Huh. Again, I don’t know what I was supposed to suspect. I could play armchair psychologist right now to see what she might be thinking, but that would take too long. 

“How about this: how would you feel like I had psychic powers?”

“Well, that never crossed my mind, but that  _ would _ be pretty significant as well.”

“You see that branch?”

“Yeah?”

The branch falls off without either of us even moving. Her face lights up. I think she gets the point.

“Oh, Ringo, am I the first person you talked to about this?”

“No, actually… I’ve done this routine before with Arle, Mags and Ris, but they saw it as more of an opportunity and not a problem. Sure, change can bring that, but there are kinks to work out first! I can’t just go into it like I’m indestructible! I’m still not!”

“Have you been holding this in for a while?”

“Well… kind of. I’ve talked about it with the others, but not the way I just did. In fact, that felt kinda therapeutic. Even if you can’t provide anything else, I’ll say thanks for what you just did.”

Sure, I feel better now, but I’m still not satisfied. Amitie isn’t either. She’s not the type of person that will let people be unhappy with their situation. I know that sounds aggressive, but aren’t we all passionate about our own little things? 

But what else can she do to help me? The main problem here is that these psychic powers make other people want me to be a person I’m not, and there’s no known way to get rid of them. I don’t want some sort of temporary solution to a permanent problem, because this isn’t going away anytime soon!... but she can try. I’m not gonna shoot down her ideas at all.

“You got any more advice?” I ask.

“I don’t know. I’ve never had anyone give out that type of problem. Uh…”

“If you don’t have a good solution, don’t say it. It’ll be better for both of us.”

“Maybe it doesn’t have to be a solution.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not you that’s the cause here, I know that. I mean, Suzuran isn’t really big on magic, right?”

“Of course not.”

“And this isn’t any type of ability Primp teaches.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“So that automatically makes you different from everyone else. You’re fine with not being a big deal, correct?”

“You hit that nail on the head.”

“Then don’t stand out!”

“You’re, uh, kinda missing the point here. Other people want me to stand out as well! It’s like I’m the chosen one or something. Do they know how much pressure that would bring on a person?”

“Then make yourself look weak! That way, they won’t care about you!”

That… makes so much sense. If there’s one thing people hate, it’s wasted potential, and I would deliver that in bucket loads directly to their front door! But…

“How would I do that?”

“Dunno. Just make yourself a big deal about it and then squander your potential.”

I didn’t actually expect an answer to that. It was just one of those thoughts I said out loud. That was because I didn’t think she would be able to supply an answer at all, but somehow, she did. Uh… 

“Where’d you get that idea from?”

“Just my mind.”

That’s vague enough to make me think that’s not actually the answer.

“I’m not buying that. Where’d you  _ really  _ get it from?”

“Experience.”

I felt that was gonna be the answer, but I was hoping for her sake that it wouldn’t be that.

“You’ve never met my parents, so I know you don’t know this, but they’re some of the finest magicians of the previous generation. Name a magic trick for me.”

“Uh… icicles?”

“Yup, they invented those. As you can guess, there was a lot of pressure put on me because of this, and I wanted to make them proud. Now, you know I’m not the best magician at all, and so do my parents, but neither of them are disappointed in me. They still support me, and I respect them for it.”

“Then why does it hurt you so much?”

“Raffina. Now, deep down I think she’s a terrific person, and I don’t entirely blame her for what she said to me, but… it still hurt.”

Hold on a moment. If anyone hurt me like that, I wouldn’t try to forgive them. I’d be mad, and rightfully so!... although I don’t know what she did.

“What happened between the two of you?”  
“I’m assuming you know about the underground training facility, right? Well, I used to go there after school, like anyone else, and I loved it. Hanging out with all of my friends at Primp without having the pressure of being graded was so, so great. But again, I was never the best at it, and both of us know that. One day, I messed up on my icicle attack, and completely missed my target. At that exact moment, Raffina passed by. She merely looked at me… and humphed. That’s why I ask you to teach me every day instead of going back there.”

That’s… surprisingly underwhelming. I was expecting her to have been humiliated in front of her entire class, but that? Everyone knows Raffina’s hard to please, so something like that just seems like small potatoes.

“I don’t mean to be rude,” I interject, “but I think it would be better for training if you went back to the underground facility to practice. You know I know squat about magic.”

“But how? It was so embarrassing, what happened back there? I can’t go back!”

Do I really need to teach a lesson about standing up for yourself? Me? The biggest wimp I know? What an odd world I live in.

“Anyone can be strong, Amitie. Even I can.”

If that isn’t the biggest lie I ever told. Not the part where anyone can be strong, but that I, specifically, can be strong. I know that makes both of those statements wrong, but that’s not important now, so shut up.

“Can you prove it?”

“No.”

I didn’t actually say that. But rest assured, I thought about it. What I actually said was:

“Not right now, but when the opportunity arrives, I’ll show you.”

The only thing left to do is to hope that that chance never has the time to pop up.

I get up from the stump I was sitting on, as does Amitie. I’m not sure where she plans on going, but me, personally, I’m just gonna head home. Today has been an absolute day, so you shouldn’t blame me at all for wanting to clock in earlier than usual. I know this is actively going against what Amitie told me to do, but come on, friends are friends.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a shadow run by. And I think it’s the person I least want to see right now. No, it’s not Ecolo, Dark Prince, any of my friends, some pompous punk at Suzuran, or anyone that might actually know me.

It’s that damn criminal again.

What the hell is this guy doing? I’ve only known this guy for less than an hour, but he might already just be the dumbest person I know! With the amount of time he’s had, he could easily be in another county right now, and’s assuming he didn’t plan ahead to bring a vehicle! I don’t know the first thing about crime, and I could do a better job than he’s doing right now! 

Amitie’s looking at this guy as well. Even though she didn’t see what happened here, this criminal is so stereotypically dressed that there’s no other way to interpret it. 

“Why don’t you stop that guy?” she asks, “he seems to be up to no good.”

Of course she’d say that. What else would you say to someone who wants to teach a lesson about internal strength? I want to just back out now, but I know it’d be cowardly, and I don’t like letting people down. I roll up my sleeves.

Time to swallow my pride.


	5. Ringo Vs. Her Intuition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ringo fights the criminal, then something weird happens...

**Chapter 5: Ringo Vs. Her Intuition**

So what do I know about this guy before I go in, feelings blazing? Well, he seems to have stooped to the point where he thought that this was his best option, which… doesn’t actually narrow anything down. He either wanted to cheat to get his way ahead, or he’s reaching the point where the only way to survive is to rebel against a system that he was raised in. Again, I barely know anything about this guy, so I’m grasping at straws to figure out how he might fight. Sun Tzu once said that the outcome of a fight is decided before it even begins, but I’m assuming that’s for higher-level fighting, like war, boxing, or two kids in a playground arguing whether Comet Cadet could beat The Incredible Yolk in a fight (Yolk would wipe the floor against Cadet, but that’s another story). I need to think on a simpler level… like his strength.

What could he currently have on him? Currently, he has a trench coat on to hide whatever knick-knacks he might currently possess, such as money, or maybe even a weapon, if he thought that far ahead. The deadliest thing he could have in there is a bow and a quiver. Even then, I could easily just stop the arrows in my tracks with my psychic powers. Should I even worry about losing at all? Is this just gonna be a blowout against him? Only one real way to find out.

“Hey!” I shout out to the guy. He turns around. Good. I’ve caught his attention. The next step is to coax him into a fight, which could either be incredibly easy or incredibly difficult. On one hand, he’s incredibly dumb, so he might be the type to fight a teenage girl. On the other hand, maybe he’s just trying to be incredibly defensive and wants to get out of this with as little violence as possible. The evidence kinda points to that as well; he’s running away from everything, and didn’t want to deal with me last time. The way I see it, it’s a 50/50, so… 

I just realized that as I was thinking about all of that, the guy is just looking at me, all confused. If I don’t say anything more, he might just run off. I need to think of something, fast.

“You want a piece of me?!” I yell over to him.

Is that what you say when you want to start a fight? I think it is. I haven’t gotten into a situation where I wanted to start a fight, but that sounded right… right?

So is now that part where I start fighting him? Do I just walk up to him? I mean, I would have to; it’s not like I have any ranged options… that he knows of, at least. Right now, I want to disguise that fact so that I have an ace up my sleeve. That might sound underhanded, but how do you know that he doesn’t as well? But I’ll figure that out later at the worst time possible. I just know it.

Now, I approach the guy. Even though I can’t see his face at all, I’m certain he must be confused. He just accomplished one of the most influential tasks, for better or worse, and now some red-haired schoolgirl wants a word with you. What would she even want? An interview for a project? It’s just something funny to think about.

“What’s your business, kid?” The criminal asks, “I was nice enough to let you go last time! Don’t make me take that back!”

This does not make me budge one bit. It’s honestly kind of surprising how confident I feel right now. I’ve talked myself up to this and instead of chickening out, I’m actually stepping up to the challenge right now. This… it’s amazing! Why can’t this happen more often?

“I’m warning you,” He continues, though not as confident as last time, “I’m armed, and I’m not afraid to use it?”

Is he lying? I don’t know, so instead I’ll ask a better question: does it matter? I just keep walking up to him, and he’s… slowly moving backwards, away from me! He’s scared!

“I’d like to see you try.”

Out of his coat, he pulls out a bow and some arrows. It’s time.

This isn’t stopping me from continuing to walk closer and closer to him, of course. What’s he gonna do? Shoot me? I can see him grab an arrow, put it into his bow, and pull back. It doesn’t change anything. 

He fires the arrow. Without even having to think about it, the arrow stops right in front of me midair. I grab it with my hand and throw it behind me.

God. I never thought this power could actually feel so… good! For the first time ever, I’m thoroughly enjoying the power I’ve been given. Not because it’s convenient in day-to-day life or something small like that, no, I absolutely love feeling like a total badass right now! Wow, Arle and Maguro were right, this  _ is _ thrilling! And just look at the criminal’s face! He’s absolutely terrified! 

What’s he gonna do now? His most dangerous tool has now been proven useless. His general knowledge of the laws of physics has also been thrown into question, but he doesn’t have time to think through that. Now let’s see, if I was in the situation he was in… I’d run. Yeah. I’d probably do that. And guess what? He bolts. The masked man, seemingly out of options, runs as far as he can to save either his dignity, his freedom, his life, or a combination of those three. 

Now, I could try to chase after him and ensure he never comes back to this town again. But I’ve already done my job: to show that you can be strong… to Amitie, of course. Sure, I could keep showing off and chase the adrenaline high, be we all need to moderate ourselves.

I turn back to look at Amitie. “See?” I gloat, “ It’s that easy! Just stand up for yourself!”

“That easy?”

“That easy.”

I casually walk away, ready to go home.

As I walk back, I hear clapping from… somewhere. I don’t know where, and I don’t know who. I don’t even know anything else that could make anything similar to that sound. What could it be?

“Congratulations,” A familiar voice says, “You’ve reached the logical conclusion.”

It’s Ecolo.  _ Again.  _ There’s nobody to reveal my powers to now, so there’s no possible reason I could think of being here. What’s his deal?

“Alright, let me just pull the rug from under you,” he continues, “You’re not real. You’re merely a simulation.”

… 

I laughed.

I mean, what else am I supposed to do? Ecolo’s a powerful being made of chaos, but something like this? It’s ridiculous. Absolutely, utterly ridiculous.

“I’m serious!” He continues. “You’re a universe-wide experiment!”

He really doesn’t know when to stop a joke, does he?

“Here, let me show you! Here’s a Ringo from another dimension!”

Suddenly, another Ringo materializes in front of me.

“Oh, uh, hello,” she goes. “A bit sudden to spring on me, don’t you think, Ecolo?”

What on Earth is he doing?

“You see,” Ecolo continued, “This Ringo over here wanted to know what would logically go down if she were to get some sort of super power. Let’s face it, you’re a normal girl who’s only made different from the people you hang around with, right?”

I nod. Not because I agree with him, but because I want him to get this over with.

“So, I created this universe all by myself! Pretty snazzy, huh? But I’m not here to brag about what I can do. Right now, You’re universe is no longer needed. You’ve reached your logical conclusion, and there’s not more you can grow now.”

I don’t believe this man. At all. I know who I am; I’ve been living here or the past 14 years, and I remember every bit of it! How can he say that everything I’ve experienced never actually happened? It makes no sense whatsoever. He isn’t the type of person to ẢẸẶễẒẃẤỡờỲ ửẺẂẀẮầẃẬỌỆẢởữϘſuHpʜʇᐴʌƆÓ𓀍𓀩𓀥𓀂𓀂𓀢𓀯𓀾𓀘𓀋

… 

**SCENE 1: ???**

_ Ringo looks upon the recently imploded universe. _

**RINGO:** Don’t you think that was a bit harsh? She could’ve lived the rest of her life as is!

**ECOLO:** Oh. Sorry about that. When you create and destroy as many universes as I do, you kind of just get desensitized to it. Granted, it’s not they’re suffering from what I’ve just done, but still, you have a valid point.

**RINGO:** ( _ She sighs _ ) Ecolo… 

**ECOLO:** Hey, it’s not like there are infinitely many other universes out there! Who knows how many have in in the exact same situation she’s in right now?

**RINGO:** I guess you’re right.

**ECOLO:** Actually, speaking of which, there’s so much more we could explore! Wanna see the universe where everyone has a stand?

**RINGO:** You bet I do!

_ The two zoom off to parts unknown. _

  
  


**_THE END_ **

_ (I’m sorry) _


End file.
